We are a deeply committed couple in our 30's, and the parents of five precious children on a radical journey to get out of debt, build our faith, our family and our home on 11 1/2 acres of land in the hills of beautiful, Southwest Virginia. Our desire is to use our lives and our resources to encourage others. Sometimes the journey is incredible, sometimes it seems impossible. Here you can read about both because such is life...

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

My sweet, wonderful, full of fun helper doused the boy who didn’t want to get wet. She figured it was all fun.

And then he went missing. “Where is Caed?” I asked her. “He came in before us” she replied.

Hmmm…

Ah, he was hiding in his bedroom underneath his blanket. He was soaked and when I went to tickle him (thinking he was hiding for fun), he looked up at me with tear wet eyes and said, “I didn’t want to get wet, and I told her that.”

My children love Miss A, and she loves them and never wants to hurt them or make them sad. She was just playing with them and having fun and had no idea the boy would be so upset. She is so humble and sweet and she went to the boy and said she was sorry. Of course he forgave her, and they went on as usual. But a lesson is learned.

We must respect one another.

I believe that respecting our children is of the utmost importance. I want them to know that when they say “no” or “stop” that they should be listened to, respected. If I’m tickling my babes and they say stop, I stop. If I go to rub their back and they say stop, I stop (and I don’t make them feel guilty for it). We should not be offended if our children don’t feel like hugging, or being tickled, or playing ball, or getting wet, or whatever. They are growing into who they are and what they like and don’t like, and we need to respect their boundaries.

Just as we want our boundaries respected.

They need to know that what they say matters, that we care about their opinions and feelings and bents. It’s not only how we respect them, it’s how we gain their trust.

And I want the trust of my children.

I bet you do to.

Let’s listen to our babes and offer them a safe place to grow and learn and stretch into who they are. Let’s respect those little loves of ours.

Oh my! Only 2 blog posts for the month of July! I didn't mean to get behind again but... life happens. We have had a good summer so far though things have been way different from last summer with me being pregnant. I am always hot, always tired, up all night peeing, sometimes nauseous and usually don't feel like doing much of anything! In spite of that, we have been able to enjoy our summer and hopefully I will be able to write and post pictures about some of our summer highlights soon. I am now 25 weeks pregnant and I must say... this pregnancy has been one of my hardest. The nausea ended up going on until week 18 and still gives me trouble off and on. I have been exhausted and not nearly up to accomplishing the amount of work I am usually capable of. We have been in "survival mode" which simply means we are just doing our best to manage our home and children the best we can under these circumstances! I don't know that being pregnant while caring for/homeschooling 4 children under age 8 would be easy for anybody but I know that this is just a season and in spite of all the difficulty, Elisha is such a blessing and I feel so blessed to be adding a 3rd son to our family! The above picture is my first with all 5 children. I love them all so much! They are so worth going through 5 difficult pregancies! I thank God for each of them and would go through it all again for any one of them:-).